"Stoptober", which will run for 28 days from 1 October, is the first time the government has launched a "mass quit attempt", said England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies.

The Department of Health campaign, backed by Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation, will involve television and radio adverts, a daily messaging service, smartphone apps and roadshows around the country.

Davies said: "Smoking is still the biggest cause of premature death in England, taking more than 100,000 lives in the UK every year. This is the first time that we have launched a mass quit attempt like Stoptober and would encourage people who want to quit to get involved."

Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said: "Smoking accounts for one in four cancer deaths and nearly a fifth of all cancer cases so it's vital that work continues to support smokers to quit. Breaking the addiction is difficult so new and innovative campaigns such as this are hugely important."

Maureen Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do for your own health, as well as those you love and live with. About two thirds of smokers say they want to quit, so Stoptober provides a great opportunity to join thousands of people in the same situation and ditch the cigarettes for good."

The health minister Norman Lamb, who stopped smoking last week, said the cost of the campaign was about £2m.

He told BBC Breakfast: "It costs the NHS over £2.7bn a year, over 1,200 people are admitted to hospital every day as a result of smoking, so this is an enormous killer. With the number of lives that are lost, and the number of families that are destroyed as a result of that, surely to commit a bit of resource to a campaign that could result in saving lives is worthwhile."